


The Hermesians

by box_o_potatoes



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types, The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: also movie but mostly book, book cannon by the way, book like sruvival, cannon friendly, it's not because you are off Mars that you are safe, set on the hermes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-26 18:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6250735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/box_o_potatoes/pseuds/box_o_potatoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A set of disaster on the Hermes after they get Mark. Try to have the same scientific accuracy has the book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this is actualy the prologue and nothing really important happens in it. Also I dont have any body correcting me, so all aboard the mistake train. Also this one his short but bear with me.

“Docking successful.” Said the pilot in a sad monotone voice that contrasted from the usualy cheerful and joking one that was associated with Martinez.

In normal time, the docking of the MAV capsule with the Hermes would have been met with hurrays or at least an inspiring comment from the comander. This time a heavy silence, broken only by the irrugular breathing and sniffing of Johanssen, was the only response.

Martinez continued the pre-boarding checks and read the flight data out loud for the recorder. Even without the areodynamic caps, the flight was an easy if bumpy one. They had plenty of fuel to spare because of the lower than expected mass of the MAV. After all, they were missing all the samples and their perssonal items and of course there was ... yhea, you get it.

As soon as the checks were completed and the permission to transfer ship given, every one unbuckeled themself and entered Hermes happy to not have to withstand the mental torture that was triyng to keep it together in front of their crewmates and friends. But it was not the time to rest yet. Before leaving in the MDV, the crew had had closed down the ship and now they needed to open it back up. Martinez went to the the command module to prepare for departure (the sooner they left, the fewer fuel they needed), Johanssen had to boot all the systems back up including artifical gravity (wich had to bee booted last so that they could make sure every thing was firmly attached, otherwise it would fall in the sudden gravity and run the possibility of breaking equipement), Vogel was going to check the reactor and every thing power related and beck needed to go through the inventory and check on the experiments they had left in orbit. That last part was supposed to be Watney's job but fortunatly for them, the good folks at NASA had already planned for everything. So beck was Watney's replacement, something that was hurtfull thinking about. But the person who had the worst job right now, was by far commander Lewis since she was the one who had the pleasure of writing a detailed report of how SHE (or at least that's what she told herself) left a crewmate dead on Mars. At the moment the guys at mission control were probably pissed about having to cancel a multi-billion dollar mission. She could only imagine their reaction in four and a half minutes, when cap-com would recive her report. They'l probably have a tone of question too even though most of their awnser will already be in her report. Yhea this is going to be fun!

...

Johanssen was looking out the window of the rec-room. She had a great view of Mars from there. It was going to take two weeks of constant burning for the Hermes to gain the velocity required in order to escape Mars orbit. Two weeks of waking up to a painfull reminder of what happened. Ha the joys of ion engines. She was pulled away from her train of taughts as she heard someone coming from behind. There was no need to look to know who it was. Every one had finished with their respective task and as soon has they did they went to their quarters (probably to cry a litle while still trying to keep some dignity), the only two exceptions were Beth, because damn she needed some coffe right now, and Beck because he had Watney's job to do.

-Hey! said the doctor.  
-Hey, you're finished?  
-yhea..

Silence fell as the two astronauts stood side by side, watching the red planet spin below them. Beth leaned her head on the doctor's chest, nothing needed to be said and when she looked up at him he was looking straight in front of him, his eyes lost in the infinity of space. It seemed to her that his eyes were watery, but that could be her own vision that was starting to blur. It didn't matter. The important was that she was happy to have someone to share this moment, whatever this moment was.

...

TWO MONTHS!!!  
TWO FUCKING MONTHS! WHAT THE FUCK!

Martinez's mind was raceing. The commander had left and clearly didn't want to be followed. Everybody else was silent all still trying to cope with what they just received.

"Mark Watney is still alive"

Henderson's voice still rang in their ears. It was hard to belive it was true and even harder to figure out how they should feel right now. Of course they were happy that Mark was alive, but he was stranded on Mars with no way to get off the planet and a limited amount of food. The message did talk about a viable rescue plan but still... Mars... alone... And with no way to come back to earth. The only thing in all of existence that could tranport people betwen earth and mars was the Hermes and they were already far beyond Mars orbit. It's not like they could just make a u-turn and come back they could only go to earth, they didn't have any way what so ever to help their friend... none... they taught...

...

"Mein Gott!"

Vogel could not belive what he was seeing. The course manuver was a brilliant one, and the last (realistic) chance they had at saving Watney after the Iris one failure. The manuver required less fuel the sooner they started it and soon enough they would not have enough for the manuver and the trip home, they needed to decide quickly.

A few minutes latter they had all made the decisions to comit mutiny. Funny how it is important to stay up to date on your email isn'it. All the crew had started reviewing and preparing for the manuver.

They were coming back for Watney to save him from Mars and the boogy fever.

...

Johansses was so embarassed right now, she only wanted to be invisible. Fortunatly the comander saw that and redirected the attention.

"So to recap, we ran out of spare wire, the reactor is overheating and so is Martinez and Mark's quarters and we are over extending the lifetime of our life support system using home made chemical bath that will eventualy eat trought said life support. Great."  
"And we have two crewmates who are sleeping together!" Said Martinez.  
*Johanssen blushing again*  
"we are just spooning dont worry" said beck while smiling at Martinez.  
*Johanssen punching beck in the stomach*  
"yhea what ever man" responded Martinez.

...

"Houston, this Hermes actual. Six crew safely aboard."

They did it, they actually did it. Mark was aboard and safe, everything went smoothly (by smoothly that means they blew up an airlock). Now it was just coming back home, Mark was in a bad shape and he stank, but that could be delt with the important was that they were all there and they were safe...

Or were they...  
TAM TAM TAMMM!

to be continued (duh)


	2. Houston we have a problem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is I hope you enoy it because now the real fun is starting.

LOG ENTRY: MISSION DAY 688

I feel like shit.

I didn't feel this bad since... well... never. Back on Mars I sure was in pain (tends to happen when you are impalled by a metal rod) but I didn't feel like shit.

 

Okay I think we need to go back in time a bit. So this morning I woke up to five people watching me sleep. Yhea and if you think thats creepy, well picture them with the stupid smile parents have when they watch their newborn baby sleep. Also they all had some sort of gel under their nose, the same kind you see on cops show when they inspect a dead body. Do I really smell that bad? Awnser is I did. Because if I were their baby, let me tell you I would not be the most cute baby of the year or whatever those thing in the news paper are. In fact, at the time I am writting you this I am severly malnourished, you can clearly see my ribs (including my broken ones) and I still smell like a bunch of dead litle green man (I am sticking with the alien from Mars teem deal with it) since I didn't really had the time to take a shower. But at the time it's not realy what I was thinking about. No at the time I was high on the good stuff from Beck's cabinet. So you kind of understand that when I woke up with all their stupid face smilling at me I started to laugh (wich by the way is realy painfull with a few broken ribs).

 

...

 

Watney: Hey guyyyys!

 

Lewis: Hey Mark.

 

Martinez: Damn Beck he's high as a kite. what's that stuff you're keeping from us.

 

Beck: It's Phenergan.

 

Martinez: hook me up doc!

 

Beck: I doubt you would like it, and so will Mark in a few minutes.

 

Watney: Talky man is talky!

 

Johanssen: So how long will he be like that?

 

Beck: Hard to say people react differently but it should be about ...

 

Watney: Vicodins are good with potatoes.

 

Beck: Wait what!

 

Watney: Talky man not listen. Vicodin is good potato condiment.

 

Beck: Oh my god, Mark that is realy bad for your health you can't just take painkillers like ketchup...

 

Mark just brushed him off with a lazy movement of his hand to turn his head to the now laughing pilot.

 

Watney: Martinez I chipped and burned you cross.

 

Martinez: Whoa you did wha...

 

Watney: Vogel I burned hydrazine in the hab. I blew myself up.

 

Vogel: you're a bad chemist.

 

Watney: Commander I used the RTG to make a hot tube.

 

Lewis: *Gasp*

 

Martnez: Buddy you did shit that you shouldn't have done without me.

 

every body now looked at Johanssen and Watney waiting for him to say something.

 

Watney: Johanssen ...

 

Johanssen: yep.

 

Watney: I have been into your computer... you're a giant nerd!

 

Beck: Well he was better when he was sleeping.

 

Rest of the crew: yep.

 

Watney: no mom I don't want to go to sleep.

 

...

 

So after that embarassing litle moment they all went their way, you know because there's a space ship to be run, with the exception of beck who now his my personal baysitter, space babysitter (everything is better when you add space isn'it). If you are wondering, Beck is actually asleep next to me right now. I am going to be sleeping in the infirmary for a while because of something to do with the heating in my room. The thing is, it would be day right now in Schiaparelli crater and its night right now in Houston (the time zone in wich Hermes operate). So I am writing this while waiting to go to sleep because my sleeping meds run off and I don't want to wake Beck, plus sleeping is over rated. Oh well I am at least going to try, goodnight.

 

Log Entry: Misson day 689

You know when I told you I felt like shit yesterday. Forget that now I REALLY feel like shit. Okay so let me explain, today I had the pleasure of experiancing space nausea (this one sounds less fun with the word space). That means that my body is telling me "what the fuck have you done with gravity Mark bring it back" now, its something that happens to the best of us and thats why we are not short on barf bags. The thing is it mostly happens when the gravity ring has not started runnig yet wich is not the case right now, however seeing that I pulled some pretty heavy g's the other day and that I was on heavy medication the whole time since, my body being the bitch it is decided to keep the barfing for today. Now the problem is I have nothing to barf and everything that I try to eat instantly comes out. So you can imagine that when you are severly malnourished it is a bad thing. So Dr.bossyBeck is now injecting me my food plus the rest of my chemical cocktail. But with all that in mind the most important and fun part of the day was when Martinez came to visit me in one of my rare awake time during the day.

 

...

 

Martinez: Is he up?

 

Beck: Up and running.

 

Martinez: Hey buddy!

 

Watney: what up?

 

Martinez: Listen man I need to tell you something.

 

Mark was starting to worry

 

Martinez: It's about the good doctor and...

 

Beck: No Martinez d'ont, I will never hear the end of it if you do that.

 

Martinez: Things happened while you were away. He and...

 

Beck: NO! Martinez I am warning you I will drug you in your sleep if you do this...

 

Martinez: He and Johanssen are together.

 

Mark's eyes widened, his mouth shapeing like an o. Looking at Beck wich was now burrying his face in his hands.

 

Watney: Dr.Beck, you followed my advice!

 

Martinez: Wait what! Advice?

 

Watney: I told Beck to tell Johanssen about his feallings while I was on Mars.

 

Martinez: What! Hahahaha!

 

Beck: Oh God.

 

Martinez: Is that the real reason you didn't want him to know, so that he wouldn't tell us?

 

Watney: HEY! JOHANSSEN, JOHANSSEN COME HERE!

 

that was realy painfull but totaly worth it.

Johanssen entered the room with a smile.

 

Johanssen: Hey Mark sup.

 

Watney: So you and Beck hen!

 

Johanssen: oh no!

 

Beck: I tried to stop it, but Martinez...

 

Watney: So whats your couple name? JohanBeck?

 

Martinez : Thats the stupidest name I have ever heared.

 

Watney: Got a better one?

 

Martinez: What about the two nerds?

 

Beck: Okay thats enough!

 

Beck went and injected sleeping aids in Mark's IV bag.

 

Watney: Wait you are druging me because I'm giving you shit?

 

Beck: Yep, and as for you Major Martinez... You better watch your back for my vengance will be terrible...

 

As he said that, Johanssen closed the distance between her and Martinez to wishper in his ear.

 

Johanssen: Agreed, you should in fact watch your back...

 

...

 

Thats all I can remember, after that the drugs kicked in and I fell asleep. But if they think their petty atempt at intimidating me will prevent me from giving them shit, they are wrong. I will give them all the shit.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 670

Is it actually specified that aquaman can only control fishes or is it all sea annimals. Because that would explain the whales.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 671

I'm bored. Today I convinced Dr.BossyBeck to finaly let me take my shower. I mean I think I can lift up my arms and wash myself all on my own. No seriously thank you for the proposal to do it for me but I would rather not. The showering itself was no problem, the thing is that with all the effort (yes washing is difficult stop laughing) and the meds I got a litle light headed and didn't see the puddle of water I made in the 0.4g environment. So of course I slipped on it. Nothing bad, in 0.4g its hard to hurt yourself, but the important is that it made a noise. So all the crew rushed in the bathroom like if this was a major health hazard. Good thing is that a shower in space is more of a plastic bottle that you squezze to get water and a litle bit of clothe with soap, so when every one forced themself in the tiny bathroom I wasn't actually naked. Bad thing is now I am not allowed to even leave my bed and I am on 24 hour watch. Hey Beck say hi to the readers! Wow that was harsh, I am not going to write what he said that could hurt your feelings. Also I think I may be driving him mad being quote, the worst patient I ever had! and quote.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 673

Hmmm! Food Real food!

 

Log entry: Mission day 675

Yep I defenitly drove Beck mad. Now he is locked up in Johanssen's quarter with her (Oooo! Saucy!) No but seriously I think he maybe crying and loosing is shit while Johanssen is tying to pick up the pieces.

 

...

 

Beck: MARK WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN THE REC! I leave you in the med bay for 5 minutes alone and when I come back you have vanished!

 

Watney: But I was hungryyy. And you said it yourself, eating is good for me.

 

Beck: Eating in moderation, eating too much quickly could be harmfull, and still you could have waited for me to come back I would have brought you something.

 

Watney: But the bed in the infirmery is so unconfortable, if at least you would let me check on the heating in my quarter...

 

Beck: No we went over it their is nothing that we can do.

 

Watney: At least let me check, I am after all the mission's ingenieer, just clear me for duty I am ready.

 

Beck: last time you said that you lost conciousness.

 

Watney: I told you I just slipped on a puddle.

 

Beck: Yhea thats why your blood pressure was so low. If you could just listen to me sometimes that would help, I might even be able to help you get better.

 

Watney: Please I do everything you ask, take all my meds, I even stay in my bed for most of the times like you want but the boredom is killing me. Just say one time other than this that, however much I complain about it, I don't follow your directives.

 

Beck: How about awnsering the psychology's team questions seriously instead of with jokes?

 

Watney: Those questions themself ar jokes. I know how I feel and thats what is important I don't need the rest of the world analyzing every single details of my life.

 

Beck: WELL I DIDN'T SEE ANYONE ELSE BITCH ABOUT IT WHEN THEY WERE SENDING US QUESTIONS TO KNOW HOW WE FELT ABOUT YOUR DEATH!

 

Watney: I... I am... I am sorry I didn't mean to ...

 

Beck: Dont... just... look after yourself...

 

And so Beck left the rec to have some privacy.

 

...

 

So... yhea now Lewis is pretty pissed that I traumatized her one and only on board flight surgeon and therefor I am once again grounded to the med bay under constant surveillance but this time, its from our dear commander. She is giving me the death glare right now... I am scared...

On other news, I think Martinez is literally Shitting himself. Nothing yet as come from the infamous duo wich is freaking him out. So to conclude, everybody on this ship is either fucking scared to death or pissed. Except for Vogel who just continues to eat his german sausages.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 680(1)

I am not babysitted anymore Yheaaa! Albeit I am not yet cleared for duty wich means my room is still an inferno, wich means I still sleep on what is basicly a platic board. But hey nobody is watching me sleep anymore and I can eat when I decide to. Now on the more important matter of the Beck/Johanssen plot. I think its a hoax, honestly they still didn't do anything I am calling it, their bluffing.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 680(2)

Ho, there is a plot. And after what you did to Beck the other day I am telling you, you will suffuer from it too.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 681(1)

Okay so considering I did not write that second entry, I would say that I am probably fucked. So either thats a message from me from the future or computer genius Beth Johanssen just acked my log and wrote that in. However cool the first one would be, I didn't see future me writting about a storm back on Mars so I am guessing it is number two... Fuck.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 681(2)

Thing Thing Thing! And we have a winner. Good job smartee pants.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 681(3)

Thank you! Also could you explain to me why we are having a conversation in a log when we both are on the same spacecraft?

 

Log Entry: Mission day 681(4)

Meh! Why not? Plus we would not want your dear imaginary friends reading this to feel left out now would we?

 

Log Entry: Mission day 684

Just as a disclaimer I would like to say that I don't have imaginary friends. I would have gladly named a volleyball Willson on Mars if I had one but NASA didn't really see the use of a vollyball on Mars (although now that I am thinking about it, it would be pretty awsome). However I do, unlike some people (Johanssen), think that people will be **VERY** interested by these logs once we get close enough to earth so that they can be transfered, who knows they might even make a movie out of it. But in the mean time, this will have to be for me, myself and I. Oh and litle spy Johanssen too.

 

 

[...]

 

 

Mitch was standing in his usual spot at mission control. It was now late at night and in about 45 minutes, Brendan Hutch would come and replace him for the night shift. With the litle Stunt Mitch had pulled Brendan would be sure to inherit his position as main flight director as soon as Tedy had something he could use against him. It wasn't too bad realy, Hutch was a good man and a very dedicated one. Thats how he climbed up the NASA lader in the first place. The only thing was that Mitch was afraid that he was too much of an ass kisser. Not that he personnaly had something against him or anything realy, he had never seen a problem with him. But the thing was, that Bredan would have never even dared to have enough balls to go against the orders from higher up like he did. Probably what Tedy would want from his new flight director after all. But he was right to take the decesion and after all, it paid off. That was what NASA really needed, a flight director who was cappable of making the best decisions for the mission, not for the politics or any of that bullshit. Anyway it was over now, all was well and the Ares 3 crew were going back ho...

 

"Flight, GPO." the guidance procedures officer sounded a litle too panicked for Mitch's likes.

 

"go ahead GPO"

 

"we have telemetry lost"

 

"Capcomm, status report. confirm GPO."

 

"Flight, Capcomm."

 

"go ahead capcomm."

 

"Complete lost off comunication, both ways."

 

"Flight, GPO."

 

"go GPO."

 

"All telemetry lost with the exception of the EM-BEACON"

 

The emergency beacon was an extreamly simple anttena wich was completly independant from the rest of the ship. It had its own battery that only powered the anttena if an indepandent reciver could not hear the rest of the ship's communication. Therefore in the case of a comm failure from all three of the systems the EM-BEACON would just send a beep. So the good news was that the Hermes hadn't blown up, otherwise the beacon would not be working. The bad news was that capcomm had confirmed lost of connection on both ends. The Hermes computers had all they needed to calculate and correct trajectory on their own, except from one thing. they needed to know where earth was to calculate their position in space. With the connection lost the computers were missing the information required and had probably cut the power to the engines. Hermes was now drifting.

 

"FDO I want to know the latest time they can start their deceleration burn."

 

"Roger, flight"

 

"GPO, Capcomm I want you to try all you can to find any means of communication whatsoever, the problem is on their side and they might fix it  at any time so I want you constantly looking for them."

 

"Roger flight"

"Roger flight"

 

"Okay people we have an emergency situation here you know the drill"

 

For fuck sake!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I lied. They are not yet in danger but they will be next chapter. But don't expect it to come as fast as this one because now I need to do some real rocket science for the next one.


	3. I GOT THE POWER!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here it is chapter 3. Now the fun begin for real. All the numbers in the story should be in the ballpark.

Mission Control was the pray to panic. Flight controllers from all directions where talking on the radio, waiting for their turn to be allowed to speak,

 

"Flight, Capcom."

 

Mitch gave the permission to the Capcom controller to speak up

 

"Primary communication system just made contact. The backup systems are still in the dark."

 

That was a good thing, mostly. The loss of all three com system, even momentarily was something quite strange. The fact that only the primary one had booted back up was very meaningful. Mitch had his suspicions on what was going on but only telemetry could confirm it.

 

"Flight, EGIL." spoke the electrical generation and illumination engineer.

 

"Go EGIL."

 

"We have a problem, a big one..."

 

 

[...]

 

 

Log Entry: Mission day 686 (1)

Seriously! What did I do to piss off God so much (apart from chipping and burning a religious symbol)? Okay let's walk this trough step by step. So a few minutes ago, a major power malfunction caused the shutdown of the generator and all electrical system. Of course the Hermes has battery and an emergency mode. As soon as the power system failed, the alarm rang (and woke me up in the middle of an awesome dream about fast food). We had been trained for such scenarios many years in advanced and we knew what to do. So we all rushed into the command module and got to work.

 

...

 

Johanssen: Reactor is off line, it overheated and shutdown before it could go south. I’m switching to emergency power.

 

Lewis: Martinez I want you to enable low energy mode.

 

Martinez: aye captain!

 

Lewis: Vogel I want you to figure out how long we can last on battery power.

 

Vogel: Ja!

 

Lewis: Beck, go and prepare for an emergency EVA, we might need one if things get out of control.

 

Beck: I'm on it.

 

Lewis: Johanssen keep checking trough the generator's output. See if you can find a way to turn it on without it overheating.

 

Johanssen: Already doing it.

 

Lewis: And Watney...

 

Watney: Go check up on the reactor, got it.

 

Lewis: Wait, no. Actually I want you to stay by my side.

 

Watney: But commander, I’m the mission engineer. I should be checking if any of the reactor's part broke.

 

Lewis: The reactor could have a meltdown, I don’t want you near it if that happens.

 

Watney: If that happens commander we are all going to die anyway.

 

Lewis: It's an order Mark.

 

...

 

So, a few things. A) The reactor didn't have a meltdown. B) We are now in low power mode which means that I am now writhing this on a laptop since it has its own battery. C) Vogel estimated that with our battery we can last 12 hours before everything shuts down and we die. D) I can't do shit to help. Let's go back on point c. The Hermes usually needs about 300 kW to run when the engine is on. The engine to itself takes 200 kW, so we get 100kW under normal circumstances. The low power mode deactivates the lights, the gravity ring (it still keeps turning since we are in space. This means we still have gravity but it will progressively slow to a halt), the secondary and tertiary communication system and all other non-essential system. In total the Hermes requires 60 kW in low-power mode, mainly spent on heating components. Fortunately, the Hermes is equipped with 6 battery of 120 kWh each. Plus we have some small solar panel that were used to keep telemetry when the Hermes was un-crewed and the reactor not running. The solar panels can provide us with a total of 20 kW, adding a big and beautiful 4 hours to the 12 hours to give a total of… you guessed it… 16 hours. And so we have 16 hours to repair whatever is going wrong or we lose life support for good. Right now Johanssen is trying to figure out what is wrong from the computer while Beck is preparing for his EVA. I’ll keep you guys up to date… 16 hours.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 686 (2)

Well we know what is wrong with the reactor. Actually, nothing is wrong with the reactor itself but the radiator c has been ripped off. My best guess is that a micro meteorite ripped it off, but normally any object massive enough to do such damage would be detected by the ship’s radar. In worst case scenario, a micro meteorite could punch a small insignificant hole in the panel, that’s why we cover windows and fragile part when we are not using them. The thing is, the radiator has been going for far longer than it should have, stretching when it had to dissipate more heat and shrinking when it had less. With time micro fissure must have formed, micro fissure that would have stayed just that if they hadn’t been disturbed. But my dear crew mate had to blow up the VAL. The Hermes experienced an acceleration close to one g when it was used to only 0.0002g. The sudden change must have widened the fissures. When the micro meteorite hit the already weakened panel, it ripped it apart. We lost approximately 50m2 of radiator. The good news is that the commander finally agreed that I could help after learning that. I proposed to do the same thing I did on Mars with the “Big Three”, except this time it won’t be with an RTG but with a fully functioning nuclear reactor and the Hermes life support. So by heating the returning gas from the atmosphere regulator I can save a kW of power. 59 more to go. I can do the same thing with the oxygenator since the reactor produces more heat than the RTG (I was able to skip that part on Mars since the oxygenator only needed to work for one person). That gives me another 2kW of power saved to get us to 57kW of power consumption. One problem, NASA taught better than to put the life support system next to their great big nuclear reactor. So we are going to need to pump water in between the two to cool one and heat the other. Remember when I said that a shower in space is really just a bottle, well you have to refill that bottle and to do so you use some kind of tap (space tap!). The good thing is that the tap is about as far from the water tanks as it is from the generator. The pump and tubing that provides the water are accessible for maintenance. Me and buddy Martinez are going to disassemble them and use them for the cooling. So where does all the rest of the power need comes from? Well for the most part it’s heating other components of the ship. You see, every electrical component must be heated in space, even if they are not working otherwise they might break and never be able to turn back on again. I wish that we could just use the water pipe again, but all these components are spread across the ship and we don’t have nearly enough pipes to cool them all. So we will just shut them off. Low power mode assumes we are going to fix the problem and go back to full power again so it shuts down electric systems but keeps them heated. If we shut down the non-essential one like the experiments, we should get about 20kW. Now we are talking. It’s not quite enough, but I got an idea for the rest. I doubt the commander will like it tough… 13 hours.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 686 (3)

So… that took longer than expected. Because of course I fucked up again. Not badly, but often, so what should have taken us 3 hours max took us 5 with every part of the pump braking down and needing fixing or the pipes seal being leaky and we now have 8 hours to go. We are still spending 17kW more than what we can produce. And so I proposed drastic measures.

 

…

 

Lewis: Nope, no way not doing it.

 

Watney: We don’t have the choice. Belive me when I tell you that I am the last person here who would want that.

 

Beck: How much would we save again?

 

Watney: 20kW. And before you ask, no there is no other way we can get that power, at least not that I have taught of.

 

Martinez: Shit!

 

Watney: It will at least give us the time to come up with something better.

 

Lewis: Fine, I’ll inform the boys back home about your idea.

 

Johanssen: NASA will never approve this.

 

Lewis: No, I don’t expect them to. But if we ever run out of time and they can’t think of another way, then they will have no choice but to give the okay.

 

Vogel: I can’t imagine them being happy about us shuting down the communication system.

 

Watney: It’s the only way we will get those 20kW.

 

…

 

So yhea, turns out inter-planetary communication requires a lot of power. If you think about it, all the com systems back on Mars were only used to talk to Hermes which then would talk to earth, even the one that tried to murder me. Of course without the constant communication with earth, we can’t get the telemetry required to adjust our trajectory, but that is a problem for another time. Right now I am good with Just the bare minimum, as long as we don’t die I’m fine… 8 hours.

 

Log Entry: Mission day 687 (1)

It’s now day 687, we haven’t slept all night. After many hours off delayed discussion with NASA, they have reluctantly agreed to my plan as a last resort. In the meanwhile, we have been discussing all night about other ways to be more power efficient which have all concluded with “it will not work”, great. I’m really tired… 5 hours.

 

[…]

 

Mitch was visibly tired, Hutch had checked in but Mitch refused to leave until the whole power crisis was over. Venkat was also there, he had been woken up by a call from Anderson and arrived at mission control a few hours ago to oversee the operations although he was not in charge in such cases, the flight director was. Teddy and Annie were in the same building but in an adjacent room preparing for the worst if it ever had to come to it. NASA really needed to keep contact with Hermes and shutting off the primary communication dish was not an interesting option. Of course Hermes would open the communication once the battery would refill and then shut it back again once depleted. This way they could still make status report, and get telemetry for maneuvers, but only in intervals. Not ideal.

 

“Mitch. You should go home and get some rest, Hutch can handle this.” Said the Mars mission director.

 

“No thank you, I’m fine. I just need a bit more coffee.”

 

“it’s been how long since you slept?”

 

“The crew hasn’t slept yet. I can stay awake if they can.”

 

In 3 hours the Hermes would run out of batteries. They didn’t stop working on the problem although it seemed quit desperate by now. They had a room next door full of geniuses having a Skype conversation with the best brain of GPL, Glenn research center and many other NASA facilities. If they didn’t find a solution now they might never find one at all. Reducing the power consumption to 20kW was a short term goal, but eventually they needed to find a way to get the 200kW the ion engine needed. Otherwise they would kind of just… drift forever… 3 hours.

 

[…]

 

Log Entry: Mission day 687 (2)

We are in pretty deep shit. There is only one hour left and NASA has green lighted communication shutdown. You know you are in pretty deep shit when NASA wants you to cut all your ties with civilisation. Yhea we are definitively in deep shit... 1 hour.

 

…

 

[09:32] HOUSTON: We are go for communication shutdown; go through check list one last time please.

[09:48] HERMES: All non-essential system are disabled, modified system are holding and all essential systems are accounted for. We will give frequent report once the batteries are filled, the time will vary depending of how much the panels are exposed to sunlight. We will always keep an emergency power reserve in the batteries to be able for emergency communication.

[09:48] HERMES: This is Hermes actual, we are ready for communication shutdown.

[10:05] Houston: God speed Hermes.

… COMMUNICATION LOST …

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to have difficulty with the next chapter ho boy. I have been trying to simulate the Martian's orbit in a NASA open siurce software (GMAT) but I am missing information and honestly, the thing is so complicated. So if any of you guys and girls know how I could accuratly simulate the orbits and play with them in an easy way, let me know how it wiuld be appraciated:)


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